By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Combine the mindset of social equity and justice with the love of science and you get Shaun Glaze. Glaze, an African American woman, is the Chief Consulting Officer of Inclusive Data, a data research service based in Seattle and Houston.
According to Glaze, Inclusive Data is designed to gather and analyze information to enhance the marketing and promotional capabilities of companies, government agencies and not for profit organizations.
“We do market research and a part of what that means is we help people get connected to the audiences they care about,” says Glaze. “In most cases the people businesses are trying to reach are customers and so you’re a new business, you’re getting started, you have all of these things that you need to do, but your main focus is to find customers and our job is to help you with that.”
Glaze, who moved to Seattle from Texas after the last presidential election, has loved science from a very young age.. With a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Biology from the University of Texas, a Master’s in Family Therapy from University of Massachusetts, and in the midst of working on her PH.D, Glaze needed a ripe setting to put a love of science and research to work and apply it to the challenges that being Black woman, who is queer, in America can present.
“My family and I moved here because of the last election,” says Glaze. “When the last election happened it was clear to us that it wasn’t safe for us to live in Texas anymore and so several of our community members in Austin (Texas) left together.”
In that moment, Glaze needed an environment rich in racial and social justice and Seattle offered the social and political structure to thrive both personally and professionally.
“We came to Seattle because that’s where we could find work,” Glaze reflects. “What was promising as well was that Washington was a state with racial and social justice initiatives and that’s cool because I do consulting and I specialize in that area and hopefully it will be a great place to get some work done.”
Through Inclusive Data, Glaze has worked with a diverse array of businesses and agencies using data collection to give clients a full picture of the potential for growth in how businesses reach the clientele they are looking for.
In the social justice realm, Inclusive Data worked with racial justice advocates, allies and organizations working in support of Black lives in order to reach the greatest number of individuals to help bring about meaningful and impactful change.
Fellow market researcher, LéTania Severe of Plumb Research Services, says that the work that Inclusive Data does can help aid in the success of almost any business/organization, and help businesses connect with the general public and producing potential customers.
“Inclusive Data does market research and helping business automize their work and to help businesses improve their marketing, their digital reach,” says Severe. “Shaun is good at using prodding questions around how to use your data to improve your outcome in whatever your business is and It’s (Inclusive Data) is really versatile in that way.”
Glaze’s driving force is a desire to help heal and enlighten the community on racial and social justice for all. Glaze possesses a passion for humanity, in particularly, the Black LGBTQ communities and their efforts to make sure that all people are treated fairly and equally. Glaze’s work through King County Equity Now — a coalition of accountable, Black-led, community-based organizations working to design and realize a new normal rooted in equity — is based on influencing the community to establish its voice at the table of policy making surrounding economic, racial, gender and societal justice.
“In this moment, where I am at, I am all about trying to figure out how do we expand the decision-making table to be more inclusive towards creating equity,” says Glaze. “So, everything that I do is related to that.”
Looking at the environment today, science in all of its forms has come to the forefront of human conscience like never before and data and research scientist such as Glaze and Inclusive Data and their colleagues want the community to know that science can be instrumental in the betterment of community and society.
“One thing that is really cool about Inclusive’s work and how the industry has integrated her work into our strategies as well is having an equity mindset,” says Severe. “They’ve also provided an anti-racist tool and so I think that that is really important.”
Glaze hopes this work can usher in and create a fairer world for all to participate in.
“With my early research around children and gender and race ideas I’m trying to create a better and fairer world,” says Glaze. “Research that I did after that (children) the work about women in the construction trade and how do you create gender and racial equity in the construction industry, all of my work was about creating fairness.”
At the end of the day, Glaze remains focused on what can we do t change the world from a perspective of a Black woman with a love for science.
“I have a pretty good life in this regard, it comes from questioning ‘what would make a better world,’” Glaze continues. “To me this always feels like a very “Black” thing, we have always tried to figure out how to make a way out of no way and change the world for the better.”
